How am I doing so far?

[PaPaSmokes]

I have a question, this equip is brand new and first time used. We started getting a gray color every once in a while, the nut wasn’t to tight and the meat was consistently 31°
All parts washed and sanitized before as well as lightly oiled the plates and knives. We had a lot of fun, they are resting in the frig and I’ll start the pk100 in the morning to start drying.
The 2nd grind was way longer as I had to use the stomper quite a bit to get the meat to go down, didn’t think I was trying to go to fast but maybe I did. I’m def open to you veterans but I’ll say I love this new part of the business. This sausage is the mango tango from the bearded butcher mango and jalapeño with maple seasonings. Tomorrow we’re doing a cheddar brat.

[Tex_77]

If the gray was coming out of the end of the auger shaft, and kinda looked like grease, its totally normal and is just fat discolored by the grinding. I just pick it out when I see it. You can absolutely go colder on the meat as it heats up fairly quickly after beginning ground. I grind semi frozen meat most of the time. You only want to feed meat as fast as your grinder will take it, try to avoid using the stomper as much as possible.

[Dave in AZ]

PaPaSmokes
Everything Tex said is spot on for my experience too! If I do a 2nd grind, I pretty much freeze meat, not hard froze but still frozen, chop it up ice cube size with knife, and just plop those bits into grinder one at a time, let grinder push them. Works much better to feed small amounts than to use stomper.

Here is maybe where I differ from some folks… I am not an advocate of regrinding. In my opinion, there is zero need or benefit to a 2nd grind, unless you are attempting to get a smaller grind than your smallest plate. Basically, grinding on a 3mm plate a couple times to simulate a bowl chopper, and get close to an emulsified farce.

With a sharp knife, why not just do an 8mm or 6mm grind to start, instead of grinding 10mm twice? The 2nd grind places so much more smearing force on the already ground fat, I think it is a detriment and produces a worse product. I grind my fat separately from the meat, so I can do good extraction mixing on the meat and then mix in a 3mm grind fat. This lets me keep good fat particle definition if desired, or if not it lets me coat fat with extracted protein, for a good bind, without smearing the fat. Smearing the fat results in more fat-out.

Anyways, there it is… for 3mm grind or larger, I grind once and done, easy to do with a decent grinder like you have.

[Denny O]

Dave in AZ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yep! Stomper is the last resort, not the way, not the somewhat normal!

[Denny O]

Dave in AZ Ok, so if you are going to grind through your smallest plate, maybe most of us have a 3mm, you will pass your cubed meat down the throat of your grinder and in one pass have hamburger?

[Dave in AZ]

Denny O yep. I’ve got a #22 1hp grinder. It has zero problem going from strips of meat, 1"×2"×10", straight to 3mm grind. I don’t usually leave meat that large before freezing, but I could.

But I’ve used a kitchenaid mounted one, and could go right to 4.5mm grind. However, I cut up with knife first. But to my mind, knife work is super fast and not an issue at all. I can dice up a whole pork butt to 1/2" cubes in 5 min or so. I do it all the time for cooking Thai or Chinese, I don’t even think about it. So dice up, partially freeze to semi solid, grind easy.

[Denny O]

I think SWMBO might squak at me abusing the Kitchen Aid mixer. I just have a #8.
When I purchased it 10 ish years ago, I never thought it would get as much use as I do give it!

[bocephus]

Dave in AZ Shouldn’t have to use the stomper on second grind, have cold meat and just feed at the pace your grinder will take.

[samspade]

Denny O I’ve still got my kitchen aid and use it to make ground beef for burgers. For sausages go big. I use a 32 but I think it’s to big but I got it for a good price.

[PaPaSmokes]

Ok guys I might have just ruined the very first batch of sausage. I used the bearded butchers mango tango seasoning and realized after reading that it did not contain cure. I put it in the smoker at 120 and have been stair stepping up to 170° the meat went from 32° and now sits at 135° I believe I put them in at 9ish am and it’s now 11:15 am. You think I’m ok?

[Dave in AZ]

PaPaSmokes
Yes.
130 begins killing pathogens. At 135, it takes 37 min.
In a recent video 2guysandaCooler tested minimum cooker temp to not use cure. He used 2 hrs to reach 160f, but I believe those were a bit arbitrary in choice.

Use of cure1 is because ground up meat has a higher bacteria load than a muscle, and waaay more surface area to grow. USFDA recommends 6 hrs maximum for meat between 50f and 130f. But ground meat, Eric used 2 hrs. USFDA may say that, but I haven’t found it.

Anyways, you are close enough to be OK I’d say.

[PaPaSmokes]

So you guys think that the fresh sausage that I have still in the smoker that was in the danger zone for around 3 hours or so is ok to continue. As I stated above I did not realize the prepackaged mix I bought did not have cure included, lesson learned for sure, I hear different things snd it’s not worth a $20 piece of meat to get the family sick. I’m still finishing it up as at least practice. It at 153 now and I have probed a few so it’s almost there then I’ll I’ve bath it and set on counter for an hour before the frig if you guys think I’m ok. Let me know your thoughts.

[dawg]

I agree with Dave in AZ

[PaPaSmokes]

dawg I just wanted to clarify what I did do everyone had the facts that it was in that danger zone longer than 2 hours. Thx for your reply.

[twilliams]

It’s not really relevant but what you have is not fresh sausage, what you are currently doing is making a smoked cooked sausage. A fresh sausage is a meat product that is raw meat that you grill, fry, bake, Sous vide or microwave in a short period of time typically at a constant temperature. Smoking a sausage you are slow cooking at a multi temperature increase until complete. I personally wouldn’t eat a smoked product without the cure added but I know others have stated before this incident that it would ok if it met certain criteria, which I am not sure of what they are so I can not give an opinion on if it’s safe or not.

[PaPaSmokes]

Ok guys, I’m in learning mode and not ashamed to post what I think is a not so good looking brat. They are mango jalapeño maple from dwarfed butcher, we used 12.5 lbs of pork butt , double grinder and kept at 31/32° during the whole process, used top notch hog casing. Frig overnite. Dries at 120° for an hour with dampers open, 130° smoke/water pans dampers at 1/3 for an hour. 140° same for 1 hour, 150° same for 1 hour, 160° same, 175° no smoke no water close dampers until sausage hit 160°, ice bath for 30 min then into frig. Figured since they were not cured I’d better not leave them on counter to bloom. Not sure how I got from such a great looking raw brat to this…

[bocephus]

PaPaSmokes During initial drying time I have vents fully open.

[PaPaSmokes]

bocephus did that, I posted all my details.

[bocephus]

PaPaSmokes You posted dampers closed during drying cycle.

[PaPaSmokes]

Sorry, I did have dampers open during drying.